Summary Sheet for Trainers
Feeding Strategies to Support Children’s Healthy Weight
Strategy 1: Model healthful eating behaviors
 Shows children how to try new foods, and to eat a variety of foods
 Children are more likely to eat the foods they see adults eating,
 Children who will eat a greater amount of nutrients, and less total fat and saturated fat, all
of which can impact weight.
Strategy 2: Support children’s internal cues of hunger and satiety
 Supporting children’s internal cues of hunger and satiety.
 Children are born with hunger and fullness cues that allow them to regulate their food
intake.
 Adults can provide verbal cues to children on the feeling of fullness and hunger.
 Adults who assume the responsibility for how much children eat at a meal or snack may
contribute to childhood overweight by disrupting the child’s natural ability to recognize their
internal cues.
 Restriction of foods can limit children’s access to specific nutrients, which can hinder
children’s development.
Strategy 3: Plan regularly scheduled meals and snacks
 Plan regularly scheduled meals and snacks.
 Without scheduled meals, children may experience greater hunger signals, which may
result in compensatory eating at the following meal.
 Children who are allowed to graze throughout the day may consume less nutrient dense
foods and more total fat and saturated fat. In addition, one meal of particular importance
is breakfast.
Strategy 4: Offer a variety of healthful foods
 Adults are responsible for selecting the food at mealtimes, and it is important that they
offer children a variety of nutrient dense foods.
 Adults are should limit the frequency they offer children sugar-sweetened beverages and
increase the frequency offering children fruits and vegetables.
Strategy 5: Let children serve themselves
 Allow children to serve themselves.
 Adults still are available to provide assistance to children by giving them verbal and
physical guidance.
 Adults can cue children to take smaller portions initially, but reassure them that they can
serve themselves more if they still are hungry.
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Summary Sheet for Trainers
Strategy 6: Supportive Environment
 A pleasant mealtime environment fosters children’s ability to self-regulate intake,
encourages a variety of foods, and promotes communication and interaction between
children and the adults.
 Ensure the mealtime environment is pleasant is accomplished by establishing a positive
physical, auditory, and social environment.
 Televisions can be distracting to the adult and children, and deter mealtime conversations
and children’s interest in the food.
Strategy 7: Avoid rewarding or consoling with food
 When adults consistently reward and console children with food, they are creating a food
habit that may last the child’s lifetime.
 Rewarding with food elevates the preference for that food.
 Rewarding and consoling with food along with other manipulative feeding strategies to
persuade children to eat more, eat less, or to behave in a specific way, hinders children’s
ability to self regulate intake of food.
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